I'm surprised more companies haven't chosen Berlin. Big startup scene, desirable location, great transit links... seems to be obvious to me. I must be missing something.
I can certainly think of German cities with advantages over Berlin.
Karlsruhe for instance has an extremely awesome scientific community, its university is in fact home to the oldest computer science faculty in Germany and coincidentally was the first place in Germany to have leased-line Internet connectivity (in 1989). There's an abundance of excellent engineers coming out of the university which is definitely a plus when you're staffing a startup. Also, much nicer weather compared to Berlin and a much more affluent region with better infrastructure and more companies.
Frankfurt/Main also comes to mind, the secret Internet capital of Europe and home to the largest Internet exchange in the world (DE-CIX).
I guess it's just that these cities aren't as sexy and hyped as Berlin.
I used to spend a lot of time in Karlsruhe and like it, but it is fairly quiet, and for someone like twitter not having flights from the US might be an issue, though the train from Frankfurt is pretty quick.
It does also have the most extensive tram system in Europe.
I've never been to a city with more Hackerspaces than Berlin. There is just a lot of free space to go and meet people and collaborate. It's also very cheap.
This is often overlooked, and is the reason I live here. My 1750 square foot penthouse apartment is $1400/month— including heat. Try that in any other world-class city!
The move from Manhattan nearly blew my mind. With transatlantic round-trip flights around $500-600 when booked properly, there's little reason NOT to live here. I save more than that on rent each and every month, not to mention groceries.
PS: Not that you said it outright, but neither Berlin, Hamburg, nor Munich are in the western hemisphere. UTC+1 baby!
Great transit links? Not by airplane in my experience. Also, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich are closer to other large, rich European cities. Berlin is dreary and, in my opinion, a clusterfuck. Obviously my judgment is clouded by the fact that I don't like Berlin. My girlfriend lives in Berlin and so I spend way more time there than I otherwise would. Don't get me started on Kruezburg.
I wouldn't be so sure. Unless Lufthansa decides to make the new BER a hub (unlikely with FRA and MUC already playing that role) it probably won't see much more transatlantic traffic than it already gets. United already has a nonstop to NYC and I think that's BER's only North American destination. Unless a lot more SF companies open up in Berlin I think they'll just have to make due with the SFO-FRA/MUC nonstops and connect from there.
BER is indeed intended to be a Lufthansa hub, on par with the others you mentioned, at least according to my airtravel-nerd girlfriend - I'd link you if I had the source.
A flag carrier with two major hubs that also operates a non-hub in the shiny new airport in the Bundeshauptstadt? Doesn't make sense to me, either.
Also, presumably the Continental 5-plus-times-a-week TXL-EWR will be moved over to BER when it opens, as well.
There is a certain gloriousness to waking up WELL-RESTED at 3PM after a long night of hacking or clubbing, having a leisurely breakfast, and then hopping on IM with your colleagues in EST5EDT that just rolled in to the office at 10AM. Or maybe that's just me.*
Great news. Hamburg is usually very good in attracting strong online brands (Airbnb Germany, Facebook Germany) but this time they weren't and it seems that Hamburg as a online/tech destination is slowly questioned.
Hamburg and the people there are quite nice but Berlin it's a completely different ball game. Everyday, VCs shotgun boatloads of money to Berlin based startups, the largest European VC are moving to Berlin and really EVERYBODY is in Berlin right now.
This is great news for the Berlin technology scene, if for the halo effect alone (big brands attract big talent). Berlin is indeed a great place to live, and I think a lot of companies will follow suit in the next few years.
Accordingly, rents will continue to rise sharply and all of the qualities that initially made Berlin an above-average-attractiveness choice for employees and employers alike will eventually evaporate - but that will take ten years, and lots of people and companies will build lots of awesome stuff in the interim, all while saving tons on rent and other living expenses.
Give it a whirl! 'tis a fantastic place. Ping me when y'all arrive.
Although presumably, like Google and Facebook, it will still claim that it has no substantial presence in Germany and all it's Eu revenue is generated in Eire and so pay no tax.
That's not entirely true. The double Irish normally only reduces your tax take to approximately 2%, so both Google and Facebook do pay some tax in the EU.
Well, yes and no. I agree that I have never heard anyone call the country Eire (except for me when posting letters from the UK), it still remains that the canonical interpretation of our constitution is in Irish, as as such , the name Eire takes legal preference above the Republic of Ireland.
Ireland is ambiguous and likely to annoy half the inhabitants, Republic of Ireland sounds like legal small print and "the south" is a euphamism if you don't know who you are talking to in a bar in Belfast.
Great news for Berlin, the place to be right now. I am using this thread for a shameless plug: if you are interested to come to Berlin and to work here please check out opportunities at our brand new startup: https://hackernews.hn/item?id=3653322
Why does twitter need so many employees? I could see like 50... Nothing has changed in years there, they have 1 product which is posting 140 characters. Everything else is pretty basic, just big scale. I don't get the need for thousands of employees.
They have millions of companies posting twitter messages and they provide analytics and other tools for businesses. I think they need a lot of people at call centers, support department etc.
In particular Partner Managers who bring the "Twitter mindset" into large media publisher and tech companies (compare how established Facebook as a tech platform is)
Given the development is likely to be in eastern Europe and Berlin is the eastern most city that you can expect contracts to be honored and the police/tax/authorities to be legitimate - it makes perfect sense.
Munich is stuffy and expensive, Berlin is comparatively poor and open verrrry very late. The game hasn't changed - it's just a totally different environment, for vastly different hiring objectives.
